1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pricing systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a livestock pricing system that can compare specifications of each of a group of animals with price information from a plurality of buyers in order to predict a best price for the animals.
2. Description of Prior Art
The United States beef industry produced over 26.7 billion pounds of beef with a retail value of over $58.6 billion and United States consumers consumed 69.5 lbs. of beef at a cost of $213 per capita in the year 2000. Such an industry is comprised of millions of sales transactions each day.
For each transaction, beef producers must decide to whom to sell their livestock. With the large number of buyers in this industry, deciding which buyer will pay a best price has become a daunting task. This task can be particularly difficult when producers or sellers have many different animals and different buyers who use different pricing schemes. While many standardized pricing schemes have been introduced, such as grid pricing, these schemes involve many complex calculations. In addition, failure to communicate changes in such price schemes may lead to errors and inefficiencies.
For example, deciding to which buyer a particular seller should sell involves many calculations based upon specifications of livestock that seller has for sale. These calculations themselves can be quite difficult and wholly dependant upon price information from buyers. If such calculations are based upon old and inaccurate price information, sellers not only waste their time, but also miss out on more lucrative sales.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved livestock pricing system that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.